Keep Your Eye on the Bouncing Blog

    The library blog has packed up and moved to a new location. Please visit "Reading, Reviewing and Ranting: passionate book talk with Linda and Kaitlin" at http://betheltulplibrary.wordpress.com/ After your visit, be sure to leave a comment or make a suggestion. We'd love to hear from you.
 
 
 

I'm a bold grinch about The Goldfinch

  Last fall I saw lots of praise for The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. The cover and glowing reviews dominated headlines in several  online book newsletters and reading websites that I frequent. It sounded like a novel destined for big things. And indeed it was. It won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction this spring, just about the time I first snagged it off the new arrivals shelf.
  Here's a quickie synopsis from the Pulitzer folks, just so you know what they thought:

 "Awarded to "The Goldfinch," by Donna Tartt (Little, Brown), a beautifully written coming-of-age novel with exquisitely drawn characters that follows a grieving boy's entanglement with a small famous painting that has eluded destruction, a book that stimulates the mind and touches the heart."

   Considering the book is well over 750 pages, you could say the Pulitzer judges left a few things out in that blurb. They skipped over the deep, dark abyss that was the main character's life. But that's just my take.
    This was, most of the time, a difficult story to navigate. And not because it was poorly written. Oh no. Tartt is a gifted writer, and I marveled at her imagination and ambition to crank out a novel of this magnitude and complexity. How much research did this woman conduct beforehand? She knows about classical artwork, art theft, Americana furniture sales, reproductions and restoration. She knows about drugs and drug abuse and living in Las Vegas. She knows about the uber rich of Manhattan as well as the conversational styles of Latino doormen.
  She also made me care--madly and deeply--for Theo, our young hero/victim/reluctant art thief whose life we share for hundreds of pages. It was why I kept hungrily returning to the book, even though I knew each chapter in Theo's life would be rife with despair.
   Theo loses his mother in a terrorist attack while visiting a New York museum, and while he picked his way through the debris to escape, a dying man insists he grab Carel Fabritius's The Goldfinch from the destroyed gallery's wall. Dazed and desperately searching for his mother, Theo does what he's told without question.
   Later, his alcoholic--and estranged--father resurfaces and sweeps Theo from the comfort of a friend's home only to insert him into a barren, lonely existence in Las Vegas. Instead of a bomb, Theo is now the victim of epic negligence. His father and his father's girlfriend are absorbed in their lives and destructive habits while Theo ekes out a life with his closest friend Boris, a Russian transplant and product of a similar Vegas, absentee parent. They become brothers and scrounge for food, drugs, a kind word.
  And that's just the first third of the book. Theo ultimately returns to New York City with the painting and starts fresh. After what he'd been through, it is a euphoric moment in the book that moved me to tears. But Theo's tragic history and family tree squash every lucky break. Just when I hoped his situation would change, Theo elected to keep secrets. He distrusted those best suited to help. The painting, regretfully, stayed hidden. In the midst of his deception, Theo does learn a trade. He becomes a savvy antique furniture restorer and salesman. He even reunites with the family that offered him refuge after his mother's death. I held my breath from page to page, just waiting him out. I wanted Theo to come clean. To trust. To stay clear headed and sober. But wishing didn't make it so. Instead, Theo got Boris, and the world turned upside down again.
  I couldn't put the book down (when I had the time to read during this busy spring), but the story made me wince. I wanted to love this prize-winning novel, but I pushed to finish. Couldn't wait to finish. Yet I'm very, very glad I invested my time in The Goldfinch. In fact,  I have encountered readers who gushed over this book, like the woman at my salon who reported during her cut and blow-out that members of her book club hated to see it end!! So there you go. Yes, read this. But buckle up.
  The book is making me crazy. It's great, but it's a mess (a recent Washington Post headline claimed it was a "pretentious mess"). Tartt gives us a glimpse of the dirty underbelly of life, yet I couldn't look away. No one could.

Push From the Book: I'm still thinking about this book and what it all meant to me. I came out on the other side bothered by what I had encountered. At this second, my strongest motivation is to read something totally different. Kind, bright and optimistic. Sounds like the right time to hook up with the Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith. It fits the bill.  

Undercover Warriors

  I am pleased to share this interview with I Shall Be Near To You author, Erin Lindsay McCabe. Since finishing her historical novel last month, my head was buzzing with more questions about women in the Civil War who, disguised as men, lived and fought with husbands, lovers, husbands and brothers. I was seized by the need to know more, and the busy author graciously answered my questions--via e-mail-- with the copious details I craved. 

   Who were they? How did they do it? Why did they do it? Did they make a difference? McCabe told me everything I needed to know, and I thank her again for sharing her mastery of a little known slice of women's history. I still shake my head at the thought of it. Women, passing as men, in the thick of battle. Who knew?

  

1. Do you believe your novel is revealing lesser-known chapters of Civil War history? I can't believe many people, even Civil War buffs, know about these women signing on to the fight?

Most of the Civil War buffs I have encountered do know that women fought in the Civil War. When I visited a reenactment here in California as part of my research, it was made very clear to me that the regiments participating there were “equal opportunity” and I saw several female soldiers in the ranks. That said, most people I talk to are pretty surprised to learn that women fought, and they are even more surprised when they hear the numbers (250 documented, 400-1000 estimated). Their reaction is usually very much like mine, when I first learned of these women—disbelief, shock. Several readers have commented that they thought the premise for the book was implausible or even ridiculous, until they learned it was based on fact.  It’s such a great piece of history and I feel like it’s important, especially for girls and women, to know just how fully women have been involved in all aspects of this nation’s history. One of my hopes in writing this novel was that it would serve as a tribute to the real women who enlisted, and help their stories gain more exposure. There are several fabulous history books that focus on women’s service in the Civil War, but I feel like this topic was ripe for fiction because we really have so few details about most of the women, and so little of it is in their own words.

                                                      Sarah Rosetta Wakeman

2.  Rosetta disguised herself for love. Was that the motivation of most other women who took this drastic action? Rosetta Wakeman, a real woman who passed as a man and enlisted in a New York regiment, didn't seem to have that element in her life.

The real Rosetta didn’t have romantic love as a motivation to join up, but it’s very clear from her letters home that she did love her family very much. She frequently sent home small gifts for her siblings (a knife, a ring, a photo) and she asked about the farm in almost every letter. Her father was in debt and she sent quite a bit of the money she made home, so her main motivation seemed to be that she could earn better money and help her family more as a soldier. But she also says in one letter, “I like to be a soldier very much,” and in another “I have enjoyed my self the best since I have been gone away from home than I ever did before in my life. I have had plenty of money to spend and a good time asoldier[ing].” Maybe that was just a brave face she was putting on for her family, but I tend to think that she really enjoyed the freedom she had, living as a man. That said, most of the documented women who served did go with husbands, fiancés, lovers, or even brothers and fathers. So love was definitely a big motivator. But there are also women, like Sarah Emma Edmonds, who served because they were patriotic and wanted to fight for something they believed in, or Jennie Hodgers who wanted to experience the adventure of being a soldier. Basically women had every reason men did for enlisting.

3. Many soldiers on both sides came from farms. I can see how a hardy young woman like your Rosetta could fool people. Is that why you portrayed her as strong, capable and unafraid—so she could more easily pass as a man?

I really wanted to be true to the voice of the real Rosetta, which shines through in her letters. She comes across as being all of those qualities—strong, capable, and brave— but also tender. Many of the other women who fought earned promotions or were remembered as being courageous and tough, and I felt like, in order to do what they did, and pull it off for years (some all the way through pregnancy even!), these women had to be incredibly determined. So, yes those qualities make it easier to pass as a man, but I think these were people who were accustomed to hard physical labor and having to work for their own survival. Living on a farm must have been a big help in being more prepared to do the job of a soldier.   

4. I presume physicals were not required to join up. How many of these women were detected during the war and what was the typical response?

The physical was often just a handshake, or a matter of having a potential soldier open up his mouth to check that he had enough teeth to tear open the cartridges to load his weapon. There was really no common or standard examination, and obviously it wasn’t very thorough. The fact that the army accepted children in the ranks (some drummer boys were as young as 9 or 10) and did not confirm the ages they were given by enlistees, made it easier for women to pass alongside teenage boys whose voices hadn’t changed and who didn’t need to shave.  There was also no official protocol for what to do when a woman was discovered in the ranks.  Some were imprisoned for, as Rosetta puts it in one of her letters, “not doing acCording to regulation.” Others were drummed out of the regiment and sent home. And some were allowed to stay. The men who learned after the war that some of their comrades had been women were almost universally supportive—they remembered their fellow soldiers for their actions and their gender just didn’t matter.

5. After reading the journals and letters, what do these women say was more difficult--keeping up with the physical demands of marching and battle or the total lack of privacy? How did they cope with menstruation? Can't even imagine.

There is absolutely no discussion in either of the first-hand accounts I read about the practical, day-to-day realities of how they managed to keep up their disguises. I was so frustrated by that! Some of the women were remembered as using tobacco, drinking, and gambling—perhaps activities they took up in order to help maintain their disguise. I’m sure many of the women were helped by the fact that they were used to doing farm work or other physical labor. It also helped that standards of modesty were higher at the time—it was not at all uncommon for men to choose to use the bushes instead of the latrines, which were notoriously disgusting. One theory is that the poor nutrition and the long marches may have caused many women to stop menstruating entirely or that with so many wounded and dead on the battlefields, it might not have been to hard to dispose of soiled rags. But how they did it remains one of the big questions I have.

6. Anything in your research surprise you--how they fared in battle, for example? Where they fought? Any women part of the action in Gettysburg?

There are five women known to have served at Gettysburg, including two women who participated in Pickett’s charge (one was wounded severely and the other was discovered dead by Union burial crews). The women were pretty much everywhere—at major battles and plenty of smaller engagements too. Aside from my initial shock that women had served in such numbers and I had never known, I think the biggest surprise was learning that women had served while pregnant and had gone undiscovered until the moment they gave birth—it seems impossible, and yet, it happened! I was also surprised in general by the moments of humanity that the troops would demonstrate toward the other side—Union troops cheering for a Confederate soldier who went out on the field to give water to the wounded in the midst of a battle, for instance. That soldier could have easily been shot, but he wasn’t. There are lots of stories like that, where the two sides treated each other with kindness and humor, although sadly, none of that made it into the novel. There were also plenty of horrific details that I was surprised by that did make it into the book—like the soldier who carved keepsake rings out of bones he found on the battlefields. That’s something I could never have made up. 

7. How were these women treated by their hometowns and communities when they returned?

There is even less information available about the female soldiers’ lives after they left the service than there is about their time in the army. The few women whose lives are documented after the war didn’t talk publicly about their experiences and only a few of them attempted to get military pensions, well after the war ended. Some of them were only identified as veterans in their obituaries. My sense is that most of the women didn’t talk about their experience much, and if they did, it was within the confines of their families, sharing their stories with their children. I think most of them probably just went back and immersed themselves in the work of daily living. I don’t know if it was because they didn’t want to talk about what they had done, or they felt they couldn’t. I imagine for many of them it would have been difficult after having been treated as equals—some of the women had even voted during their service—to go back to being unable to vote, own property, or even have their own bank accounts. It seems like it must have been very galling to give up those kinds of freedoms, to give up being considered a full-fledged citizen. Some women didn’t want to give up that freedom, for whatever reason. At least two women continued living as men after the war, one being discovered only after she died (and known only by her male alias, Otto Schaffer), and the other, Jennie Hodgers, being discovered toward the end of her life.

8.  I notice at your website there are photos of you at Antietam and Bull Run. How did those visits affect your writing? And your Playlist--how did that help you recreate the time?

The playlist was mostly about creating the right mood and tone for myself, although some of the music I listened to was music that the soldiers would have listened to and sung (The Battle Hymn of the Republic, for instance). But a lot of what is on the playlist is modern folk music, which I love because the songs are about deep emotional issues, but are sung in very simple, very beautiful, very earthy language. The kind of character that Rosetta is, and the soldiers who fought, so many of them were from agrarian backgrounds—I imagined they would filter their stories through what they had experienced of the land and nature and animals. That’s a huge part of why I ended up needing to go to the battlefields. By the time I visited them, I had written a complete draft of the novel, relying on battlefield maps to trace the route of my characters, and using field guides and historic photos to imagine the setting (and also memories of my first visit to Manassas in 1995). But I really felt like I needed to be in that physical space to really understand the landscape and what the soldiers might have seen and experienced and felt. I wanted to walk as much of the route the soldiers marched and find the places on the battlefield where key moments occur. Sitting in those places and knowing that hundreds of soldiers fought and died all around where I was walking was intense and emotional. Afterwards, I felt so much more confident working on those battle scenes, even though many of the revisions I made as a result of the trip were small details, really. The trip was probably most helpful in allowing me to feel like I had the authority to write those scenes. It was a huge challenge since I have no military experience whatsoever, but I so wanted to get the battles right and do justice to what the soldiers experienced. Hopefully I succeeded.

Civil War Masquerade

   Up until now my favorite Civil War novel was the 2006 Pulitzer Prize-winning March by Geraldine Brooks. While Brooks employed the fictional Mr. March from Little Women to create a Civil War masterpiece, Erin Lindsay McCabe relied on journals and letters of real soldiers to shape her tale of a wife who disguises herself as a man to fight alongside her husband.
   McCabe found about 250 accounts of women passing as men during the Civil War and used those writings to help create Rosetta Wakefield, a new bride who could not fathom life on her husband's family farm after he leaves to join the Union army. She was strong and capable, more comfortable with fieldwork or barn chores than the tidy women's work her mother-in-law insisted she perform. Before her marriage to Jeremiah, Rosetta was the son her father never had. Outdoor work among the animals and crops suited her, but it's a life long gone now that she's married and living at Wakefield Farm. Once Jeremiah leaves to join the 97th New York Volunteers mustering in Utica, there's only one thing for her to do.
   She grabs shears to cut her hair and needle and thread to cut down Jeremiah's old clothes to fit her five foot two-frame. With a map, some socks, flannel rags, hard boiled eggs and bread, she sets off.
   Rosetta becomes Ross Stone, Jeremiah's "relative" from back home and brings her hardscrabble, can-do attitude into the camps. She learns to drill and shoot and blend in among the men. Jeremiah insists she leave but eventually succumbs to his wife's determination to stay.
   Here's an excerpt from Rosetta's early days in camp that offers a glimpse of her connection to the land and the routine of the troops awaiting orders:
   "I never had so much of nothing to do before in my whole life. No cows needing milking. No chickens needing scraps. No troughs to fill. No garden hungry for manure or fences for mending or laundry for scrubbing. There is just mustering for drill, or roll, or inspections, all of which means getting up before the sun even though it seems to me there ain't a thing to be done in our company that needs such early rising."
   This is a women unaccustomed to idleness or time wasted. But in no time the guns arrive, and she's thrust into a whole new set of challenges. The weight of the gun and cartridge boxes will be a heavy burden. Aiming and then shooting while on the run? Even Rosetta can see she's in for mighty upheaval.
   Before the company sees action they move south into Virginia, and Rosetta accompanies the Captain's wife to a hospital for the most gravely injured. She is drafted into nursing chores but is nearly overcome by the sights and smells and sounds of the ailing soldiers. At one point she must dress the wounds of a soldier with no hands. Rosetta balks but then settles to the task: "I ain't got the knack.....But I can do a thing that needs doing."
    Rosetta had grit, and her resolve inspired me. Her devotion to Jeremiah touched me. Their love was deep and abiding. How they protected and nurtured each other during fleeting moments of privacy warmed my heart, and their tenderness was in stark contrast to vivid battle scenes McCabe recreated at Bull Run and Antietam. If Rosetta didn't get into the fray, she helped tend the injured and bring water to those close to death lying in the killing fields.
   I Shall Be Near To You is a great book and ideally suited to anyone interested in the Civil War or the untold stories of women who joined the fight. But at it's heart, in the midst of all the blood and violence and death, there is a love story that will burrow deep inside of you.
The Push From the Book: I'm now a bit obsessed about these women serving in the Civil War. So many questions. I really need to talk to Erin Lindsay McCabe........stay tuned.
 

Helping Hands in Africa

       My reading travels rarely take me to Africa, but this is one armchair adventure I'm glad I didn't miss. Josh Ruxin's memoir of his humanitarian work in Rwanda, which eventually led to the creation of medical centers, agricultural and business development and the unlikely creation of a hilltop restaurant called Heaven, is a book that I'm cheering and endorsing with vigor.
     To me it was an epic tale of good and evil, light and dark, bloodshed and forgiveness, poverty and prosperity. And if that wasn't enough, there's a touch of romance, family bliss, even a few recipes in the final pages.
   But first things first. This is a comeback story about Rwanda, a tiny land-locked country in east central Africa with an ugly chapter of genocide in its modern history. Before this book, I could not have given you too much information about it, other than a vague notion of tragedy that occurred there a few decades ago. The movie Hotel Rwanda rang a familiar note, but I never watched it because I couldn't take the violent story. So that image of the country simmered for many years, and I was never called upon to revisit or revise it until now.
  Before you can appreciate Ruxin's efforts to eradicate poverty and disease in the country, he's got to give readers some sense of Rwanda's history. In 1994, many years before our writer arrives, the country's divide between the Hutus and Tutsis finally erupts in unimaginable horror. For 100 days, Hutus hunted down their Tutsi neighbors, friends and coworkers and slayed them in the streets. They pulled them from homes and churches for impromptu murder. Many were shot or burned but many more were attacked with machetes. It's a horrible back story, but in order to understand the miracle of forgiveness and progress underway in Rwanda, we need to know what came before.
    Ruxin and his wife Alissa, another public health professional, arrive to fight poverty, AIDS, TB, malaria and malnutrition, and with governmental support and funding from U.S. individuals, businesses and agencies, the pair slowly helped transform the rural countryside. Using business and management principles, Ruxin and his team of local experts slowly made inroads in the delivery of immunizations, prenatal care and local food production. It was absolutely inspiring to read. The pair did amazing work and certainly defied the notion that no single individual can make a difference in a community. At the end of each chapter I was left wondering if I do enough to serve my fellow man.
   The final third of the book was about Heaven, Alissa Ruxin's pet project that now is a destination restaurant for tourists on their way to or from the northern Rwandan mountains to see their own 'gorillas in the mist.' Alissa's efforts to build the restaurant, recruit and train staff, source local food and sustain the highest standards were a tribute to her unique talents, spirit, and desire to leave behind sustainable ventures. Afterall, the Ruxins will someday leave Rwanda, and Rwandans will need to keep things running.
   A Thousand Hills to Heaven will make you happy. Don't be scared off by the early chapters of genocide. This is a joyful book, and there is so much goodness on display.
The Push From the Book: Help others. Help others. Help others.  
 

What He Did For Love

 I didn't consciously select this book for a Valentine's Day post, but The Rosie Project was the ideal story to celebrate the season of love. First up--this book was funny, and I didn't see that coming. Within minutes of opening the cover--on page 10 to be exact--I laughed so hysterically that I had to lay the book down to satisfy my big, cackling, tears-in-my-eyes moment. It was aerobic laughter--out of breath, heart-poundingly good. All because of Don, my new hero.
     Don Tillman, a genetics professor, has Aspergers, which isn't funny. Yet author Graeme Simsion uses Don's challenges with social skills and awareness to create moments that just make you chuckle throughout the entire novel. Except on page 10, when I howled. Here's what Don said--and what he thought--while filling in for a colleague at a lecture:
   "A woman at the rear of the room raised her hand. I was focused on the argument now and made a minor social error, which I quickly corrected.
  "The fat woman--overweight woman--at the back?"
  Don thinks he just dodged a screaming bullet of insensitivy! Whew. Who wouldn't want to be recognized as overweight rather than fat, right? Well, that slayed me.
   Don is such a uniquely developed character. He's highly-functioning, rule-abiding and obsessively organized about his food, his exercise, his sleep, his work. And perhaps as a result, has only two friends. He had three, but his elderly neighbor is now in a nursing home and doesn't recognize him anymore. Even Don knows he's reached a time of his life where things need to change. He should find a 'female life partner."
  The hunt for a wife, via "The Wife Project," begins. His best friend Gene sends Rosie to meet Don as a joke because she was so obviously out of Don's target group. She drank moderately, declared herself a vegetarian, wore make-up and was late for their first date. So many flaws. But Rosie, a beautiful psychology student at the university where Don teaches, actually has a project of her own. She's trying to identify her biological father. Don's got the skills Rosie needs, so the two buddy-up. And before too long, Don starts to make an effort to relax a few rules and reprogram his instincts to plan and arrange and organize and obsess. Is he finding love as well? Is Rosie? You'll have to read the book to find out if "The Wife Project" and "The Father Project" find common romantic ground.
  The Push from the Book: For someone comfortable speaking to strangers and making new friends, reading about a character who struggles in the social arena made me stop to think about that particular dilemma. Friends are such a big part of my life. I cannot fathom them not being there. Simsion, I think, did a great service creating this character so we can better understand what life is like for a person with this disorder.
 

Easy Goin'

   A few days ago I posted a link to 50 essential mysteries. I had read only a handful and wanted to check off one or two more. Within days I received Walter Mosley's Devil in a Blue Dress from Reading Public Library. Published in 1990, it's the first of a dozen books featuring Ezekiel 'Easy' Rawlins, who put down roots in Los Angeles after World War II and just hoped to make his mortgage payments and hang on to a steady job. But life in 1948 LA is not so simple for a Black man, and the racial divide is always on full display in this novel. Even the first sentence puts you on notice that there are stark differences between blacks and whites that are about to be exposed: "I was surprised to see a white man walk into Joppy's bar."
   Seasoned mystery readers probably know all about Mosley and his war-weary protagonist Rawlins, but this first book in the series was new--at least to me--and quickly turned addictive. I loved Mosley's writing. His descriptions of  neighborhoods brim with gritty detail, and the characters appear instantly within your mind because he's painted them with bright, vivid colors. I bolted through the book, turning the final page before I wanted to give it up. There's no doubt that I'd travel with Mosley--and Easy--again.
  But be warned. You will encounter the violent, unsavory underbelly of Watts on these pages, and Easy's got to wade through it all while hunting down the whereabouts of beautiful, blond Daphne Monet. Daphne's gone missing (along with a lot of money) and all Easy's got to do to earn $100 is locate her for the cool, pale-eyed guy who walked into the bar on the first page. Considering Easy's just been laid off and has bills to pay, it's a job too good to refuse. His search takes us  inside bars, pool halls and nightclubs, and we meet the people who inhabit Easy's world--some of them more dangerous than others. And the longer he hunts for Daphne, the more trouble he meets--both on the street and inside police interrogation rooms.
   Dead bodies keep showing up and Easy seems to be around most of them. The bad guys don't like Easy's questions and the police are convinced he's a strong suspect in several of the murders that crop up each day. Easy can't catch a break until his best friend Mouse appears to provide some much needed back-up. Despite the cute, sweet sobriquet, Mouse is always ready to rumble and kill if he has to. But he's got Easy's back and arrives in the nick of time to protect our hero. And just to insure that you won't put down the book, Mosley throws in a neat little surprise about Daphne that I never saw coming. Nifty bit of deception.
 The Push From the Book: I'm ready for another installment with Easy Rawlins, and I'm going to read them in order. Next up: A Red Death.
     

New York State of Mind

     The lure of vintage clothing, a 100-year-old diary, and vivid recreations of turn-of-the-century New York City were too much to resist. I had to read Astor Place Vintage. After The Grapes of Wrath I needed a palate cleanser, so I fell for a bit of time travel and boutique shopping. Works for me.
   The book was a quick read, and I relished the tale of two New York women: Amanda, the modern-day shopkeeper who sold vintage treasures, and Olive, the aspiring department store buyer from 1907 whose life went from riches to rags overnight. Despite the century between them, Amanda and Olive are connected. And it all begins with a diary Amanda discovers inside a fur muff. It's part of a stash of promising retro-wear belonging to 98-year-old Jane Kelly. It's there she starts reading about Olive, a young woman just moved to New York where her father manages the new Woolworth's. Her apartment at 29th and Madison has all the luxuries a young woman could need: hot and cold water, steam heat, electricity and long-distance telephone. Very posh.
   Olive dreams about following in her father's footsteps and plans for a job as an assistant buyer. Although she's got plenty of experience, she hesitates asking her father for a reference. He'd never approve. Author Stephanie Lehmann lays the foundation of feminism early in the book as Olive faces one obstacle after another--all gender related. There are restrictions and limitations everywhere--from lodging and clothing choices to job prospects. Bad news for someone who just wants to be a successful working girl.
   After only a month in the city, Olive--for reasons I can't divulge--finds herself on her own. She can't live in certain apartment buildings without a father, brother or spouse. Just wouldn't be proper. There are more personal struggles, too. She's driven to know about her body and sex and reproduction, but has no one to speak to--Olive's mother died in childbirth--and few written resources to consult.  Lehmann does a good job defining the times here. Really, how did a young woman in 1907 learn the ways of the world? Did anyone ever speak candidly about, say, how to avoid pregnancy? Olive struggles with these topics throughout the story and often the medical information available to her and other women of the time is contrary to the facts as we know them today.
  Amanda's issues in the modern day were just as vexing. She's battling insomnia, trying to keep her business afloat and presiding over a love life that is far from secure or fulfilling. During her sleepless nights she alters and repairs old clothes for her store while reading Olive's diary.
  Anyone intrigued by life in the Victorian age will certainly be amused by all the references to life in the early 1900s. I was absorbed by all the descriptions of everyday life of the period. New York City's busy streets, its architecture and amusements were great fun to read. I also enjoyed reading about Olive's life as a shop girl and how she spent her time away from work. I admit that I found the chapters devoted to Olive and her friends more interesting than Amanda's life. Considering what Olive had to overcome, Amanda faced less struggle, at least to me. Her life was bumpy, for sure, and not without its challenge. I just think Olive's resolve was more appealing.
 Push From the Book: It would be too predictable to write how this book made me appreciate my life as a 21st century woman, with all our access to information and opportunity. That message comes through loud and clear during most of the book. I don't need to repeat it here. I was originally hooked by the idea of reading about vintage clothes. I'm attracted to them and their lines, colors and shapes. But behind the retro fabrics and designs, there are stories. Who wore this? When? How did this dress make her feel? I'll think more about those questions next time I tie my mother's old scarf around my neck or pull on a pair of her gloves. The concept of stepping into another person's life via their clothes strikes my fancy.

Essential Mysteries

  After plowing through The Grapes of Wrath for my book club, I should consider one of these 50 essential mysteries for a taste of something completely different. The last mystery I read was probably an installment in the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith last year, or maybe the year before. My appetite for who-dunits is meager, but every once and awhile I hunger for a good chase or criminal investigation or creepy setting with spies and bad guys.
       This list is fun to click through. I read a few of them, like the John Le Carre classic above, but perhaps it's time to switch things up. There are more than a few "never heard of that book" selections here and some that I've always wanted to try. Many of them seem to invite that trench coat, film noir vibe. Enjoy your time in the literary shadows!

  http://flavorwire.com/434548/50-essential-mystery-novels-that-everyone-should-read/


 

Teatime Talk with Shona Patel

  Every once and awhile I contact an author for a little e-chat, and after recently finishing the exotically themed Teatime for the Firefly by Shona Patel, I thought I'd give it a shot.  I wanted to know more about her life on those tea plantations in Assam, India, and about her publisher, Harlequin MIRA. Harlequins were the romance of choice during my teen years, and I can thank my tea-drinking Nana (who must have read them in between soap operas) for introducing these light stories to me. They hooked me on reading, but after a few years I moved on from Harlequins to more serious fiction. Forty years later I wanted to revisit the books I knew as a beginning reader. Patel's book didn't resemble those slim, red-covered paperbacks that were piled beside my bed.
   Patel was sweet and obliging, although she was busy working on her second novel. Here's what she had to say---

1. I'm confused about your publisher--Harlequin MIRA. Teatime seems so different from the books I read as a teen. They were formulaic and predictable--exotic setting, girl meets boy, girl hates boy, girl and boy kiss (or maybe more), girl and boy doubt their emotions, brood, but unite for a happy ending. Your novel was crafted with far more skill than stories I read from Harlequin in the 70s. Are we talking about the same publisher or just a new phase in its publishing life?

You are not alone in this, I get this question all the time. I have often received the comment, "Teatime is not your mother's Harlequin," so I guess it does come as a surprise to readers, but not in a bad way. My editor Susan Swinwood once said to me not so long ago that Teatime for the Firefly was changing people's perception about Harlequin and more specifically about romance. That's amazing.

 Harlequin has several imprints and yes, most of them are focused on romance like you describe. MIRA Books is the literary imprint of Harlequin and offers sophisticated, issue-driven editorial, the kind of novels book clubs like to discuss.

2. But Teatime does have a strong romantic component. Does that make you a romance writer?

No, I don't see myself as a romance writer per se. My books fall more in the literary fiction/women fiction category. As for the Harlequin label: I am not sure how much labels count anymore. In this age of social media, book sales are reader driven. Readers will arrive at their own judgment no matter how you categorize a book or who publishes it.

3. You lived on an Assam tea plantation, and I'm guessing your vivid descriptions of life there were drawn from your own experiences. Did you feel isolated as a child or were you distracted by the beauty and the wildlife? Did you attend school there?

I spent the first 15 years of my life in the tea plantations of Assam. I had a very carefree childhood surrounded by rivers, forests and fields. I don’t think I ever felt isolated or lonely for a single moment. My education was a problem as there were no regular schools around, so when I turned 10 my parents packed me off to a private boarding school like the other tea garden kids. The school was 300 miles away, and we came home twice a year for holidays. I loved boarding school and had tons of friends, many of whom I still keep in touch with. I remember my boarding school days as some of the best years of my life.

4.The term "tea garden," which pops up frequently in the book, is such a delicate term compared to the reality of monsoons, rogue elephants, snakes, insects. How long did your family live there and did you ever feel like you resided in a hostile place?

A. The term “tea garden” is rather misleading, I agree, but that’s what tea plantations in India are called. Most people imagine “tea gardens” to be small, picturesque tea farms when in reality they are sophisticated, industrial scale undertakings, employing thousands of people. Their location in the dense rain forests of north-eastern India often makes life unpredictable and dangerous, but I have come to believe a tea planter’s job attracts a certain thrill-seeking personality with a thirst for adventure. My father was a tea planter in Assam between 1941 and 1974, after which he retired and became a tea consultant in the city of Calcutta, where life was staid and predictable. I think all of us missed the tea gardens when we lived in the city.

5. The book jacket explains that you're a trained graphic designer. How--and when--did you make the leap to writing novels?

A. I started working in advertising and graphic design right out of college (1984: yes I’m old!!)  and I wrote Teatime for the Firefly on the side a few years ago while I was still working. I only became a full time writer when I signed a three-book deal with Harlequin MIRA.

6. How long was the story for Teatime steeping inside your head? Have you always wanted to tell the story of tea plantation life?

A. I’ve always wanted to write a novel set in the tea plantations of Assam. The story evolved organically in the writing process. I started out with a premise and had some idea how the story was going to end. Then all I did was set my sails in that direction. It’s quite fascinating really, how stories shape themselves, sometimes in marvelous and unexpected ways.

7. Did I read someplace that you live in Arizona? How did you land there?

I came to Arizona after getting married to my husband. We’ve lived here since 1995.

8. 'Fess up. What kind of tea do you drink? For those of us who love tea, what should we be looking for when we buy?

No surprises there, I am a die-hard Assam Tea drinker. My first choice is CTC Assam which is a strong, black tea. You can buy it as loose tea from specialty tea shops. I get my private stash (which I guard very stingily) shipped to me from India.  I brew the tea in a pot and take it with milk and sugar. Once in a while I’ll  throw in some fresh ginger and cardamom to give it that Indian chai taste. When I run out of loose tea, I use tea bags. I have a high caffeine tolerance (probably genetic) as I drink Assam tea several times a day. It  is what I wake up to every morning and it’s the last thing I drink before I go to bed at night.  If you want to try Assam Tea look for any packaged tea in stores labeled as English Breakfast Tea. This is typically a blend of Assam and that should give you an idea of the taste and flavor.

The Odd Couple

     She was pleasant but a tad ditzy, walking around town in technicolor tights and dresses, content with her waitressing job at the Buttered Bun, a  local coffeeshop. He, on the other hand, was an A-lister from London. Big business guy, extreme adventurer, handsome, worldly and sophisticated.
   But now he--Will--is in a wheelchair, and she---Louisa--needs a new job and has limited options. Unless working in a chicken processing plant or being a pole dancer can be considered choices.
   Louisa, Lou for short, and Will meet. She will be his companion for six months. And so it begins. A love story unlike any I have read before.
  Yes, I expected these two unlikely souls to get together at some point, but their journey as a couple is quite remarkable. This is not a cutesy, love-at-first sight tale. In fact, they don't really like each other much at first. Will is morose and detached from everything and everyone from his previous life and makes Lou's job miserable. Seems like she'll never break through.
  Over time, though, the two adjust. There are ups, downs, good days and bad. Big challenges and tiny victories for them both. With simple outings Will slowly starts to engage in life again, and Lou gets a taste of the world outside her little village. While she becomes a new friend and social director, Will assumes the role of teacher as he pushes Lou to try new music, new food, new books and movies.
  All very copacetic, agree?
  Not so fast. Although confined to a wheelchair, Will is a man of action, and he's got a plan. Although he can't feed himself, get dressed, bathe or travel without assistance, he can still choose how he will live these next few months and how he may--or may not--end it all.
   And so it continues. Can Lou make life worthwhile for Will? Will she find enough stimulating trips and activities for him to balance out the monotony and melancholy and infections and fevers and hospital stays?
  I loved Lou's conviction. She researched. She made a calendar. She planned. And Will came along and enjoyed the ride. And six months passed. Decision time came.
   I stayed up well past midnight last night to see how it all turned out. Very few books have that power for a woman who gets sleepy at nine, but there's no way I could have waited until the next day.
   Jo Jo Moyes is some storyteller! The book moves quickly but leaves a mark. It's more than a love story, although that's a big part of the last quarter of the book. Bigger than the couple's growing friendship and affection was the question it raised about how we live. Do we push? Do we step outside our boundaries? These are questions that pop up in many books that I read, but somehow this story with these characters made me think more carefully about how I answered them.
   The Push From the Book: Public libraries can't get every book in the universe. No library can, which is why we're lucky to be a part of a library system. Bethel Tulpehocken Library did not have this book, assigned reading for me as part of a book club selection. I borrowed it from Sinking Spring!
  Know this: more than 16,000 books and materials circulating to library users in Bethel come from OTHER libraries in our system or state. If you want a book that's not on our shelf it doesn't mean you have to go out and buy it. Ask someone at the circ desk to find it for you. Or you can go online and select the book, which will be shipped to Bethel. So easy. So convenient. Sharing is a good thing.

Traveling to Tea Country

  Shona Patel, author of Teatime for the Firefly, grew up on a tea plantation and recreated her richly green home turf, Assam, India, as the backdrop of a tender love story. For tea-drinkers like me who relish a soothing  cuppa to start--or break away from--a busy day, this book was like making a pilgrimage to tea Eden, all from the comfort of home. Patel dropped me inside the 1940s world of a bustling tea plantation and never skimped on the details: wineglass-shaped tea bushes growing in "waves and waves of undulated green," ebony-skinned tea pickers with colorful saris and thick pewter bangles, "pale lilac orchids sprouting from mossy armpits in branches."
   Halfway through I was so enthralled I went online to investigate tea plantation vacations. And there's a nice choice available, just for the record.
  Since finishing the book I'll  appreciate each sip a bit more than I did before. Tea may have the reputation as a soothing drink that invites quiet contemplation, but life among the Camellia assimica plants was rugged business back then. Encounters with man-eating leopards, venomous insects, rogue elephants, rhinos, even ghosts, were common. Is such a place the right place to cultivate love? That's the question that lingers as you move through the story.
   Maybe the tea plantation is the perfect place for Layla and Manik Deb. Earlier she was convinced she'd be a spinster because she was born beneath an unlucky star. Though highly educated, Layla believed her destiny was predetermined by her Hindu horoscope. So it would be impossible to move forward with former Rhodes scholar Manik, the handsome friend of her grandfather who is already engaged.
   Unbeknownst to Layla, Manik formulates a plan to escape the marriage and create a new life--not as a civil servant, but an assistant manager on a remote tea plantation. How they finally marry and flourish amidst the steamy jungles in a company bungalow kept me glued to each page. This, after all, is a love story, and the romantic in me enjoyed the flowering relationship in a world full of beauty and adversity. In addition to the natural world's obstacles, there was plenty to fear among the wives of the British managers employed by the tea company. They were an aloof, petty lot and rarely made Layla feel like part of the crowd. But they were minor threats compared to the upheaval underway in India at that time. As British colonial life ebbed, clashes between Hindus and Muslims became more prevalent and increasingly violent. Not even the tea plantation's distant location could insulate them from the discord, and both Layla and Manik's lives were interrupted--and threatened--during the turmoil.
  The warm, exotic feel of the book evaporates as Patel recreates this difficult period in India's history, but since her characters can't escape it, neither can we. How they responded during the crisis and its aftermath is a testament to her characters' deep connection to their souls and each other. It warmed me, just like a good cup of tea.
The Push From the Book: I'll visit those tea vacation websites again. It's a dreamy thought, to visit that part of the world so faraway and different from my own, but Patel planted a tiny seed inside me. And it's starting to sprout. Visit India? You never know.

Preps with Oars

  I just finished Ron Irwin's fine debut novel, Flat Water Tuesday. It's a rowing-team-going-for-glory story set on a New England prep school campus--old buildings, manicured lawns, and boathouse included. I found it to be a predictable clash of the haves and have-nots with edgy, adolescent boys and--to keep things interesting--a tough, green-eyed coxswain named Ruth. If the first few pages didn't tell you it was coming, you'd surmise tragedy was in the works. It's a theme that I've encountered before.
   A few years ago I read Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep, which I liked but hardly remember. Forty years ago there was A Separate Peace, the 1959 classic on my high school English teacher's suggested reading list that lots of us tried because it wasn't too long. That book stuck with me, as I think Flat Water Tuesday might. There's an outsider who lands among the privileged and learns to make his way. The journey is never easy and by the end there are big lessons learned and an unsettling fatality.
    At first glance Flat Water appealed to me because of the cover. Sometimes we just have to fess up and admit covers grab us and make us read. If I hadn't seen the photograph of rowers skimming over that glassy water I may have passed on this book. But the kayaker in me, the person who loves that serene flat water, seized the book and relished the trip inside the elite 'God Four,' the four-man rowing team with cream-of-the-crop status at Fenton School. The training and try-outs are murderous, and Irwin, who has boarding school and rowing team experience, skillfully puts us inside those damp, foul-smelling rooms with 17-year-old boys--and Ruth with her stopwatch--who sweat and strain and pull and nearly lose consciousness. It's a lot more than callouses on your hands, people. After this book I truly understand the torture of a rowing machine, a close race, and how much vomit an exhausted athlete can produce.
   Flat Water's protaganist is working-class sculler Rob Carrey, who's at Fenton on a post-high school scholarship. Carrey will provide the power the Fenton team needs to reclaim the trophy from arch rival Warwick, but Carrey likes to row alone. And if he wants that free ride at Fenton, he's got to join the God Four. No negotiation. Rob's journey from single sculler to team rower, amid the demands of his coach and boatmates, kept me engaged throughout the entire story.
      Irwin, however, is giving us Rob Carrey in two parts. He balances his life as a student with his life 15 years post-Fenton. We know that Carrey makes it through, but he's back to being a loner. He's a freelance documentary filmmaker, and instead of fitting into a rowing team bound for glory, he's trying to salvage his personal life with love interest and film editor Carolyn. The story moves back and forth with Rob as a teenager and Rob as an adult, although I believe I preferred the prep school narrative a bit more. Whether he's trying to mesh as one of the team or with his lover, Rob grapples with his ability to be a part of something bigger--at least that's what I took away from the story.
   I recommend this book to anyone who wants the inside scoop on the sport of rowing. Before you're on that flat water going head to head with another boat, there are weeks and months of gut-wrenching training. The descriptions of the conditioning regimes and the intricacies of keeping athletes in sync while they row were fascinating. The only time I see rowing competition is during the Olympics. When the races end the athletes look like they're physically defeated, whether they win or not. Now I know why.

The Push from the Book: I am now officially in awe of any athlete involved in this sport. Rowing at an elite level demands year-round dedication and great physical commitment. And, those tiny people who yell into a megaphone? Now I understand what it is a coxswain does and why he is necessary.The sport is more than moving down the river. It's keeping time, digging deep, matching your teammates stroke for stroke.
 

Someday, Someday Definitely.....

....you should read Someday, Someday, Maybe. You'll love Franny Banks, the quick-witted, aspiring actress/waitress who is on the verge of a major career move. Within the next six months she's promised herself that she'll land a meaningful acting job or pack it up and head home. There's always teaching.
   Franny gave herself a three-year window to hit it big in New York City, or at least hit it medium, and during her final days things are starting to percolate. In between her waitressing shifts at a local comedy club, she fits in acting classes with a well-established drama coach. The book opens with Franny preparing for the class showcase where she'll perform in front of the city's top casting and talent agents. It's now or never.
  Of course, when her big moment arrives, Franny tumbles across the stage. She recovers with her trademark humor and you feel in your bones she's on her way, but with Franny it's never easy, despite her comedic timing, her talent and her beauty, which she seldom acknowledges. There are bumps--maybe even a few huge potholes--along the way.
  Before going on I must report that this entertaining debut novel comes from well known television actress Lauren Graham, the former Lorelai Gilmore of "Gilmore Girls" and current star of "Parenthood." Who knew she was a double threat--actor and novelist? Well, actually, she's a triple threat, let's be honest. She's gorgeous, too.   Grrr.
 Graham created a character so agreeable and down-to-earth that I felt like I was catching up with a friend each time I returned to the story. The title alone, Someday, Someday, Maybe, suggests hope amid great uncertainty. Sure, Franny wavers at times, but she's always good company. At times her conversations resemble Graham's rapid-fire Gilmore Girls' patter, and I swore I could hear her voice during exchanges with casting agents or while hanging around with friends. She's fast on her feet, clever and a tad sarcastic. My kind of girl.
    I wanted this book to go on forever, but Wait--There's More!! It will be recreated as a CW television show, and Graham will write the adaptation as well as executive produce! Does this make her a quadruple threat? Probably.
  Someday, Someday, Maybe is set in the mid-1990s, and I presume some of the novel's description of Franny's absurd auditions and interviews were rooted in Graham's world before she hit it big. Ugly sweater commercials included.
   Those of us in the non-acting world realize, I think, that making the cut in the entertainment industry is a mixture of talent, looks, luck and connections. The odds are against lots of beautiful people who try to jump start their careers in New York or Los Angeles. Graham gives us a close look behind the scenes of what it's like to live with a few spare bucks in her checking account while waiting for that elusive big break. The absurdity---the sheer unlikelihood--of ever making it really comes through, which makes you cheer for Franny with all your heart.

The Push From the Book: You can tell I had fun while reading this book, but there's a strong, serious undercurrent pulsing through Franny's story. Stick with it. Stick with your dreams. Give it a go, with all your heart, and see what happens. You're never too old to think about this.

Aussie Angels 'Over There'

  First, look at this picture:
http://www.greenhowards.org.uk/womans-war/jpg-files/ww1-nurse-001.jpg
And then, this one:
https://cas.awm.gov.au/screen_img/E01304
This one too:
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTA2OFgxNjAw/z/3iYAAOxyV85R1cMJ/$T2eC16hHJGUFFh1bIIu0BR1cMJcBy!~~60_35.JPG?set_id=8800005007

If you have any desire to insert yourself into one of them, then you must read The Daughters of Mars by Thomas Keneally, the Australian writer probably best known for Schindler's List. Say this for Keneally, he doesn't turn a blind eye to pain, tragedy or violence. While Schlindler's List went inside the effort to save Jews during WWII, The Daughters of Mars chronicles the lives of two Australian sisters who travel to far flung and hostile territory as nurses in WWI. The story is epic, and the sisters are cool customers who never seem to flinch when desperate times and situations envelop them.
   Once they depart from the Macleay Valley, New South Wales, Naomi and Sally Durance sail around their home continent with the rest of the Aussie nursing recruits bound for the Middle East. They see the Nile, the Pyramids, the Sphinx, and the teeming markets of Cairo before wounded begin arriving on their hospital ship, The Archimedes. 
  Kineally's re-creations of crowded ship decks, the frantic triage assessments on board, the bandaging, wrapping, cutting, sterilizing, stitching, and comforting seemed so realistic to me. It was almost like I could hear the moans and groans of the injured or smell the blood and mud on boots and uniforms. He conjures up dazzling images of medical wards during  the aftermath of combat at Gallipoli. Australians took huge losses there but this was but a small taste of what the Durance sisters had yet to encounter on their ship and in Western Europe.
 Eventually, the war grinds on and both sisters land in France--Naomi in a private hospital, Sally laboring in a military clearing station. They tend to the wounded, gassed and shell-shocked troops, while trying to carve out time and space for themselves and  men who crossed their paths years before.
  The book spans the length of the war, and by 1918 medical personnel were facing another potent enemy--the influenza virus. It is here that Kineally throws a bit of a bomb himself, and I'm reeling from it. There is no clear cut ending. In fact, he creates two of them, and I'm not convinced I've got it right. Three times I went over pages 505-513 and am still dazed by this "choose your own adventure" closing. Somebody out there needs to read this so we can talk.
  The book will stay with me for a long while. I loved it, yet I wanted to know more, know the truth of the story, know how it all ends. But Keneally doesn't allow it. Can I love the book and yet seethe at its author? Yea, I think so.

The Push From the Book: I'm too stunned to process this, but this much I know. Those nurses were heroes. Doctors and nurses in all wars are, I suppose, but without the medical tools and technologies of today, their jobs back in 1915-1918 must have been strenuous and demanding and not for the weak of heart. Just take a closer look at those pictures. I'm not sure I'm made of the right stuff.

Stopping to Smell the Roses

   Margaret Dilloway's The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns was a summer escape to central California, full of lush backyard gardens, sea views, rose competitions, and a cantankerous biology teacher and rose breeder named Galilee (known as Gal, for short) Garner. She kept me chuckling, sympathizing, admiring, and sometimes fuming during the entire book. I won't forget her for a long time because Dilloway created a character whose life struggles and passions opened up whole new worlds to me.
    In her spare time Gal plunges herself into a unique hobby--rose breeding. She works feverishly to keep her roses fed, watered, fertilized and fungus free while swapping pollen and harvesting rose hips. The goal-- to create a fabulous and exotic new type of Hulthemia rose and bring it to market. But Dilloway adds another layer to Gal's life that makes her even more complicated. She's coping with life threatening kidney disease and must undergo dialysis every other day.
   What I thought was going to be a simple story about a woman who liked flowers was so much more than I expected. It thrust me into the botanist's greenhouse laboratory, the cutthroat world of rose competition, kidney disease and organ transplantation.
  And we didn't even address the side order of family dysfunction affecting Gal's life. She's got a devoted mother and father who arrive when Gal has health setbacks. She's accustomed to them, but not to her 15-year-old niece Riley. She pops up when her mother, Gal's sister Becky, heads to Asia for a long-term job assignment. Becky was healthy while Gal's childhood was marked by one health crisis after another. Gal got all the attention while Becky was on cruise-control. She became a rebellious teen, a rebellious young adult and then a single mother still battling addiction issues.
   Riley now lives with Gal and is as complex as her aunt. Her moods shift with the weather and Gal does the best she can to deliver Riley to school on time, in uniform and on point. Riley struggles with her aunt's biology course, the Science Olympiad team, friends and the long absences from her mother.
  The roses, Gal, Riley. They all have their seasons of growth, bloom and regeneration and reading Roses with Thorns was a nice blend of story and discovery. Rose breeding, a subject I've never ever contemplated, became the centerpiece of the book and I enjoyed reading about all the care and precision that's involved in creating something new in the natural world. I won't ever look at a rose the same way next time I wander through a garden center or plant nursery. It probably took years to arrive, considering its creation and time spent growing in a test garden somewhere. Also, sometimes when I go shopping I pass a dialysis center, never giving it a thought. I won't be so cavalier next time. I'll wonder how many people are inside getting their blood cleaned while waiting out a new kidney. Where are they on the list? Who is at home caring for the kids while they are connected to a machine in there?
   No surprise. I give this book a big green thumbs up. The story is satisfying. The characters are unique, and I guarantee that you'll learn a lot about subjects that are new to you.
The Push from the Book: Someone I know has a signature closing to her e-mails: "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." Gal's daily struggle with her failing kidney brought renal disease into my consciousness. I was going to say "off the back burner" but truthfully, it wasn't even on the stove. I cannot imagine having to plan a full life around dialysis, yet so many people must. The book made me count my blessings. Which are many.

Trains and Lovers......and Yawns

 I could never seriously dump on Alexander McCall Smith, author of  the recently released Trains and Lovers, and creator of one of the most beloved book series, The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Any writer who imagines such benevolent and wise characters ( first Botswana female sleuth Precious Ramotswe, for example, and her intrepid assistant Grace Makutsi) and then inserts them into a uniquely beautiful African location can only be a man of playful good humor and tender passions. His characters' flaws are compassionately rendered, the mysteries are gentle, and the life lessons present in each novel are easy to swallow. He seems absolutely grandfatherly and adorable and until I learn otherwise that's what I'm going to believe.
   So how do you tell grandpa you're a bit disappointed with his latest gift to you? You don't.
   Instead, you offer, "How nice of you." "Thanks for thinking of me." "You're too kind."
   And all of that is appropriate commentary for Smith's last effort. The highly portable book (small enough to  carry in a coat pocket, purse or backpack) is not without its charms. I like the idea of listening in to the chatter between strangers leaving Edinburgh by train destined for London. I imagined  the rocking train car,  the green landscapes flying by their window, and Scottish, British and Australian-tinged accents going back and forth across the miles. But the events that I hoped would occur on that train never materialized. There were no love connections en route, just talk. And the stories exchanged weren't as interesting or compelling as the plot lines that Smith brought to life with his legendary detective series.
  Trains and Lovers has a simple premise. It's set in a train compartment with three men and one woman whose conversation starts as slowly as a train engine gathering steam. Once underway, however, they grow more comfortable with each other and begin to reveal tales about their lives, families and loves, all remarkably affected by trains. An art history intern spies an unlikely train in an old painting; a train carried one of the rider's parents to a new life in the desolate Australian Outback; another gets off at the wrong train stop but finds a new friend, and finally, a sighting of two friends parting while one of our passengers waits to board rekindles memories of a lost love.
  And all that was good. It just wasn't as great as usual. For a varying point of view, watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTWoUjVpeVY.
  The book was a very quick read, and you could do it in one sitting, especially if you were on a train or plane and had a few hours to kill. That's if you don't strike up conversation with somebody along the way.
The Push from the Book: This time around, I'm passing. I spent one summer day on this book. It was a pleasant ride, but no lasting memories or changes of heart.

Gone Girl--A Visit to the Dark Side

   Darkness unnerves me. Whether it's rooms, basements, starless nights or stories, darkness makes me jumpy. Cowardly lion jumpy. And when surrounded by it, I want to fix it or escape it. Maybe that's why I read Gone Girl so quickly. It was a dark, deceptive and unsettling novel, and I was eager to get out of the scary shadows.
    Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn, is pitch black in terms of its themes of murder, treachery, revenge and retribution. Yet, it's wickedly good, and I couldn't stop reading it. I heard about the book last year, and its advance praise was lavish. Every review was enthusiastic, full of stars. I read the gist of the story--and yes, it sounded dark--but it was a book I needed to read.
  Here's the lowdown--Nick and Amy, a perfectly beautiful couple, meet in New York City, marry and when both lose their jobs, move back to Nick's  hometown in Missouri. His mother is dying from cancer and his estranged father has Alzheimer's. Nick taps into Amy's trust fund to buy a bar, and the couple starts over. Then, on the day of their fifth wedding anniversary, Amy is gone. Vanished after an apparent scuffle in the couple's living room.
    The novel has three parts. It begins with  Boy Loses Girl and sets the pattern of alternating Nick and Amy chapters. Nick's first commentary, "The Day Of," offers a look at the couple's present life and events surrounding Amy's disappearance. Amy's chapters are in the form of diary entries that begin when the couple first met, seven years before her disappearance. Her chapters give us the background we need to understand the couple's perfect romance, courtship and decline. Nick, Amy, Nick, Amy. Back and forth, present and past. The story flies by.
  By the conclusion of Part One, seven days have passed since Amy's disappearance. Meanwhile, Amy's diary entries have moved us into 2012. Flynn started the book with the characters' voices being years apart and by the half way point the timelines converge. The big take-away here is that during their brief marriage, Nick and Amy have fallen on tough times personally and professionally and now live inside a marriage that is circling the drain. Someone has to pay.
  And while you read these early chapters you have strong hunches about the source of evil. Flynn gives the reader just enough information to form theories and make educated guesses, but then the police make discoveries or Amy reveals something new in her diary or Nick finally divulges something nasty he's been hiding.
   Gillian Flynn writes like someone who has dominated the suspense genre for decades, but judging by the book jacket photo, she's a thirty-something. Her writing is slick and clever, and she's got one very devious imagination. Gone Girl, Flynn's third book,  has catapulted her onto my must-read-author radar, and I believe I'll need to go back and catch up with Sharp Objects and Dark Places---when I'm feeling brave.
   Even Hollywood is on board with Flynn's work. Gone Girl is destined for the big screen, and recent media reports say that Ben Affleck has been cast as Nick. A-list actresses Natalie Portman, Charlize Theron and Emily Blunt are in the running for the part of Amy.
  Push From the Book:  I married after knowing my significant other for less than a year, but after reading this book, I'd advise others to invest some time and really get to know your future mate. Sometimes you have to dig deep to find the flaws. And once you find them, what are you prepared to do?

The Last Man-- Last Words from Vince Flynn

   I needed some adrenaline pumping prose to jump-start my summer reading. Which is precisely why I chose the counter-terrorism thriller, The Last Man, by Vince Flynn. CIA operations in Afghanistan with a kidnapped agent were certain to give me a jolt, and its fearless, incorruptible tough guy hero Mitch Rapp was the ideal character to keep me riveted to the page.
  Four dead men on the floor of a safe house demand your attention, and in no time I was sucked into the well-knit story of FBI/CIA investigations, torture scenes, gunfights and deceptions. Why, I thought to myself at the end of the first few chapters, had I not heard of this author before. Who is Vince Flynn anyway?
  Before I tell you more, just know that this wasn't Flynn's first outing with Mitch Rapp. The Last Man was 13th in a series. Obviously, I'm a little late to the Rapp party.
   A few days later I was half-way through the book and while watching a news program that afternoon the cover of the book suddenly appeared on the screen. One of the news panelists was talking about Flynn, whose books had become favorites of real-life intelligence officials, as well as Presidents Bush and Clinton. The 47-year-old author was dead after a two-and-half year battle with prostate cancer.
   I'm sure I wasn't the only person in American reading a Flynn novel at the time of his death, but it came as a bit of a shock anyway. Certainly this healthy looking guy on the back of the book couldn't be gone, could he? He looked rugged, capable, strong, and smart. Just like the Mitch Rapp character I envisioned while reading his stories.
  Still unbelieving--although I knew the reports were accurate--I wanted to know more. Who was this writer who churned out these heart-thumping stories?
  The more I learned, the more dejected I felt. Flynn was a huge success story and a widely popular novelist. He sold 15 million books in the US alone and had legions of fans.
  In his hometown newspaper's obituary, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that Flynn was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child and started writing in the 1990s to combat his disability. He self-published his first novel before Simon & Schuster picked it up. Two years later he wrote another book introducing Mitch Rapp and the series was born. He produced a new Mitch Rapp novel each year, and now it seems like I've got to back and get acquainted more formally. One book at a time.
  Here's an excerpt from the obituary:
 Former CIA official Rob Richer was chief of Middle Eastern Operations when he befriended Flynn during a 2003 research trip to Washington, D.C.
“This is a guy who wrote the books, but he also walked the talk,” said Richer. “He would vet his books to make sure he wasn’t giving away secrets while remaining true to what we did. When people were up in arms about the war on terror, he defended us. He also made sure hundreds of his books were mailed overseas to our servicemen and women. He was a guy who cared. And he was a real patriot.”
   If you'd like more information about Flynn or his series of Mitch Rapp thrillers, visit his website:
http://www.vinceflynn.com/

The Push From the Book: Flynn's book dedication on the opening pages struck me when I first read it and will stay with me for a long time: "To all of my teachers and coaches at Saint Thomas Academy who taught me that to succeed in life, you need to raise the bar, not lower it."  

Geek Reads

  I love lists. And lists with books are even better. And lists about books to read to your children are about as good as it gets. Browsing through this compilation of books every geeky parent (that's their term) should read to their children (to insure their geekiness) was tons of fun.
  See how many books you remember reading to your child, and if your kids are still at home and enjoying a quality bedtime reading habit, you might find some inspiration here:
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2013/03/67-books-every-geek-should-read-to-their-kids-before-age-10/

  If the geeks who put this list together missed anything, write back so we can compare notes. One not on the list that I really loved reading with my daughter was Ben and Me: An Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin by His Good Mouse Amos, a book about the true genius behind Franklin's inventions (it was the mouse, of course) and the beautifully illustrated tale of truth and honesty, The Empty Pot by Demi